The malted and roasted barley is soaked in hot water to release the malt sugars (aka infusion mash). First you heat 10.5 quartz of water with the PH Balancer to 166°F and add it to the barley (aka strike); the infusion mash sits for 1 hr. Then you heat 12 quarts of water to 170°F and add this slowly to the infusion mash (aka sparge). From this you collect 4 gallons of run off (i.e., as much as the boil kettle can hold).

adding the first round of water to the barley

stage 1 completed

Brian has made most of his beer ‘contraptions’

On the left he is striking the barley,

below the sparge is taking place,

and to the right the run off has been collected.

collecting 4 gallons of run off

Stage 2: Boiling the Wort

The 4 gallons of Wort are brought to a boil and the 3 lbs of DME are added and mixed thoroughly to dissolve. This mixture boils for 1 hr and throughout this 1 hour the hops are added at different stages. The Warrior hops are added at the beginning of the hour, and cascade hops are added at 30 minutes, and the Vanguard are added at the end of the hour. (The Vanguard are added at the end to give flavor and aroma, not bitterness). Along with adding layers of flavors into the beer hops are a natural preservative.

adding the dme and boiling the wort

hops ready to be added the boiling wort

Be careful when adding the hops to the

boiling wort as this may cause the

wort to overflow!

Cooling the wort with Brian’s homemade wort chiller…

Stage 3: Pitching the Yeast

As soon as stage two is completed the mixture is cooled; using a wort chiller built (by brian) from coiled copper pipe, water is run through the mixture to cool. After the mixture is cooled to room temperature it is poured into a 5 gallon bucket and yeast is added to begin fermentation. Brewer’s yeast, a type of fungus, ferments the sugars, releasing CO2 and ethyl alcohol along with many other compounds including esters, fusel alcohols, keytones, various phenolics and fatty acids.

kris assisting brian

adding water to the wort

adding the yeast…

ready to ferment!!

measuring with the hydrometer

A bit of the beer was reserved and the specific gravity was measured (the density relative to pure water) by a hydrometer. Brian was shooting for 1.070 and his beer came out around 1.060 (about ten points short of what he wanted, but still pretty strong… normal beers are around 1.040).